Prescribing Datamarts

PRISMS

PRISMS is the Prescribing Information System for Scotland. It is a web-based application available to authorised NHS staff, giving access to prescribing information for all prescriptions dispensed in the community from April 2004.

PRISMS is a subset of the full dataset on prescribing and dispensing in the community (see PIS below). It is intended as a reporting tool for prescribing and finance users in the NHS Boards. There are currently around 500 active users of PRISMS in NHS Scotland.

PRISMS information is held centrally and the system is updated monthly. The data can be interrogated to provide reports at practice level and aggregated up to Scotland level.

Access is available for nominated NHS Scotland staff where appropriate.

PIS

As of 2013, access to users outside National Services Scotland (NSS) has been provided to the complete national prescribing dataset, known as the Prescribing Information System (PIS). This gives users access to prescribing and dispensing information at individual patient level, electronic messaging data and additional financial items, as well as aggregated data back to 1993; a far richer dataset than is provided through PRISMS (which is a subset of PIS). However analysis of this dataset is not straightforward and requires advanced analytical skills and experience of prescribing data.

This access is of particular interest to prescribing, financial and information analyst users who need to undertake more complex analysis of these data. Access is available for nominated NHS Scotland staff where appropriate

For further information about the fields contained within PIS please download the PIS fields document [231 Kb] .

HMUD

HMUD is the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database. The overall objective of HMUD is to provide access to staff in NHS Boards to good high level information to support the assessment and monitoring of cost and clinical effectiveness of medicines used in hospital.

The data held in HMUD can be interrogated to provide reports at hospital level and can be aggregated up to NHS Board and/or Cancer Network (where appropriate). The earliest data currently held in the system is from April 2007. At present HMUD data does not contain any patient level information.

AMIDS

AMIDS is the Antimicrobial Management Integrated Database for Scotland, a collaborative project between ISD (Information Services Division) and HPS (Health Protection Scotland). AMIDS is a web-based application, giving access to NHS staff to combined information on antimicrobial prescribing and resistance enabling the user to explore the relationship between trends in the use of antimicrobials and the development of antimicrobial resistance and Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).

AMIDS aims to support NHS boards to evaluate current and prioritise future strategies to improve the quality of antimicrobial prescribing and minimise emergence of AMR. It is intended to support the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) to co-ordinate improvements in antimicrobial stewardship.

The AMIDS & HMUD data marts are part of the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Corporate Data Warehouse. The Data Warehouse contains multiple data marts, each of which represents a functional area e.g. acute prescribing, etc.

Contact for HMUD & AMIDS

For general information about HMUD / AMIDS and how to access them, please contact the ISD Datamarts Product Support helpdesk: e-mail nss.isdshis@nhs.net; Tel 0131 275 7050.

For HMUD / AMIDS documentation and information about training, please see the NHS Login section of the ISD website. Note: this area is restricted and requires a username and password. If you are unable to access this area and would like more information please contact the helpdesk.

ISD is a division of NHS NSS
Working at the very heart of the health service, NSS delivers services critical to frontline patient care and in support of the efficient and effective operation of NHS Scotland. Visit the NSS Website for more information